Lilongwe, Oct 24 (Reuters) - South Africa tried to patch uprelations with Malawi on Thursday after a gaffe by PresidentJacob Zuma about the state of its roads that reinforcedstereotypes of awful African infrastructure and South Africanarrogance.

With Malawians accusing Zuma of a misplaced superioritycomplex, Deputy Foreign Minister Marius Fransman, in the capitalfor a regional summit, met President Joyce Banda to convey apersonal message from the leader of Africa's biggest economy.

The meeting came the day after South Africa's ambassador toLilongwe was hauled in to explain the remarks.

"He (Fransman) did meet President Joyce Banda this morningto deliver a message from President Jacob Zuma, but I was notprivy to that message," Max Cameron, a diplomat at the SouthAfrican embassy in Lilongwe, told Reuters.

Zuma put Malawian - and many other African - noses out ofjoint on Monday with a throw-away remark about why hisgovernment was introducing unpopular road tolls to pay for amassive upgrade to Johannesburg's and Pretoria's motorways.

"We can't think like Africans in Africa generally. We are inJohannesburg. This is Johannesburg," he said. "It is not somenational road in Malawi. No."

The comment kicked off a furore in the press and on socialmedia. Zuma, who was speaking in English, not his native Zulu,is prone to blunders when he strays from prepared speeches.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said the comments weretaken out of context and "blown completely out of proportion".

The ANC also denied its leaders had an overinflated sense ofself-worth and saw themselves as somehow removed from the restof the continent by geography, wealth and power - a widely heldperception outside South Africa.

"The African National Congress places it on record that boththe organisation and the president hold the people of Malawi andelsewhere on the continent in high regard," it said.

Neither line cut much ice with people in Malawi, animpoverished, landlocked state that nevertheless boasts ahalf-decent road network.

Some dredged up previous Zuma gaffes, including when hestated during a rape trial, in which he was acquitted, that hehad showered after sex to reduce the chances of getting HIV.

Others accused him of hypocrisy, given that hundreds ofthousands of Malawian migrants are working in South Africa.

"Zuma must understand one thing and that is apart from thewhite minority running his economy, Malawians are among the fewblack Africans working in key sectors and helping to build hiscountry," Lilongwe resident Edgar Banda said.

(Reporting by Mabvuto Banda; Writing by David Dolan and EdCropley; Editing by Alison Williams)